Diagnosis and treatment of vascular conditions are commonly performed using percutaneous endovascular procedures, which involve the insertion of a catheter or the like into a blood vessel or artery of the vascular system. Known catheterization procedures include the positioning and use of stents and balloons within constricted vessels or arteries, and the intravenous administration of bloods, drugs, and other fluids. The first step in the performance of these procedures is the establishment of a site through the skin by which access is made to the blood vessel or artery. A wire guide is then introduced into the vessel or artery and advanced to a desired location, often with the assistance of a guide catheter. A working catheter may then be advanced to the desired location over the wire guide in a safe and atraumatic fashion.
Wire guides typically include an elongate helically wound coil having a mandrel positioned therein for increasing the stiffness of the helically wound coil. The mandrel typically does not extend fully to a distal end of the helically wound coil, to allow increased flexibility at the distal end of the coil. This allows increased maneuverability through convoluted or tortuous pathways within the vascular system. Further, distal ends of the wire guides may be provided with preformed curves to further increase maneuverability of the wire guide into branches of vessels or arteries. Wire guides may also be provided with a single safety wire extending a length of the helically wound coil to reduce the possibility of portions of the helically wound coil breaking lose within a patient, should the helically wound coil unravel.
It is important for patient safety that a distal tip of the mandrel does not protrude through the helically wound coil while the wire guide is advanced through blood vessels or arteries of the patient. Such mandrel protrusion, which may scrape or puncture the inside of the vessel or artery through which the wire guide is moving, may become more likely when the flexible distal end of the helically wound coil is manipulated through sharp or tortuous curves of the vascular system.
The present disclosure is directed toward one or more of the problems set forth above.